1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device in which a liquid crystal is held between a first substrate and a second substrate and a method for manufacturing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for forming an alignment layer with an inorganic material.
2. Related Art
In a liquid crystal device, a liquid crystal is held between a first substrate and a second substrate, and an alignment layer is disposed on the surfaces of the first and the second substrates in order to impart an alignment to the liquid crystal. The alignment layer is made of an organic film such as a polyimide film and is provided with a plurality of fine lines on the surface thereof by rubbing treatment. However, an alignment layer made of an organic material is low in reliability, and accordingly an alignment layer made of an inorganic material formed by oblique deposition or ion-beam synthesis is recently being investigated.
Furthermore, an alignment layer formed by roughening the surface of a polymer base film and forming Diamond-Like-Carbon thereon is also proposed (refer to, for example, JP-A-2006-195111).
However, the alignment layer formed by the oblique deposition or the ion-beam synthesis is porous and thereby absorbs moisture to readily cause problems. Consequently, it is required to enlarge the seal cross-section for preventing the problems. This requirement causes an increase in size and a decrease in productivity of a liquid crystal device.
In a case of an alignment layer formed by roughening the surface of a polymer base film and forming Diamond-Like-Carbon thereon, there are problems such that the roughness of the base film cannot sufficiently function because of the Diamond-Like-Carbon and the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal varies. These problems disadvantageously cause a decrease in contrast. in particular, in a case that an IPS (in-Plane Switching) or an FFS (Fringe-Field Switching) in which the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is controlled by an electric field in the lateral direction is employed, black luminance in the horizontal and vertical directions and in the oblique direction is increased with the pretilt angle to deteriorate the contrast of a display.